Winter Walks for Small Bears

Although the weather is cooler and it is dark before four o'clock, we bears like December.  We enjoy helping to put up Christmas decorations and we like Christmas food - especially Christmas pudding! - and we also like going for walks on winter days.

Because we have fur and nice warm jumpers, we don't mind if it's cold outdoors, as we stay very snug and warm, and if it gets damp, we can always jump into our bear bag to stay dry.

 Trentham Gardens is open every day except Christmas Day itself.  Although there are not many flowers, there is still plenty to see.  The tall clipped yew trees and little evergreen shrubs show up best of all at this time of year, and are fun to jump in, as they are all springy.

There are some shrubs in flower, like this witch-hazel, and you can see lots of bracket fungi on the trees.  In fact, with the leaves off the trees, you get much better views of lots of things. 

We ran around in the woods, jumping in the leaves and finding interesting mossy stumps to sniff and climb.

 Sometimes, there were holes in fallen tree-trunks to explore.  Hanley Bear and Endon dared each other to climb inside this one, but Polar caught them before they could get inside.

'Don't go in there, little bears!' she warned them.  'You'll get your fur and your jumpers all slimy!'

We were all lifted into the bear bag and carried further along the path around the lake, past the mushroom sculptures and the leaping stage and doe.  When Polar found a nice tree we could climb, she stopped.

 Hanley and Endon were soon scrambling up the trunk, but I decided to stay in the bear bag.  My tummy was rumbling and I could smell cake and hot chocolate smells coming from the café.

 Polar and Grizzly fancied a snack too, but Endon Bear wanted to keep climbing.  Polar had to stretch as high as she could to lift him off of the branch when it was time to go.

 

While Polar was catching Endon, Grizzly had gone on ahead of us but, when we got to the cafe, there was no sign of him inside.  We stood on the windowsill, looking for him, while Polar got us hot drinks.  Just as she got back to our table, we spotted Grizzly, who had been talking to one of the park staff.

On our way back to the entrance, we saw a lovely sculpture of some trout.  Usually, it is hidden in the reeds, but during the winter, when they die back, you can see these lovely fish.

There are some other lakes to explore, not far from our house.  On another December day, Polar and Grizzly took us all to Astbury Mere, near Congleton.

Congleton is sometimes known as 'Bear Town' but this is not for a good reason.  In the olden days, the people there used to watch bears being 'baited' by dogs, which was very cruel to the bears and the dogs.  There is a bear statue by the lake and a notice which explains how, hundreds of years ago, the people of Congleton sold their town bible to buy a new bear!

 We decided to stay in the bear bag after reading that and we were glad we had, as there was a very big buzzard perched in a tree near the lake.

Polar and Grizzly had a good walk but there were lots of people walking their dogs about, and some of them weren't on leads, so Hanley and I stayed in our bag and Endon only jumped out very briefly for a little climb up a fence post.

We like it much more at Knypersley Reservoir, near Biddulph, as there are many more good climbing trees and lots of birds and squirrels to see there.

We always enjoy climbing on the old pumping machine.  It's a pity the wheels don't turn to make a roundabout for small bears!

We bears have to stay still and quiet while Polar takes photographs of the wild creatures, but when she has finished, there are plenty of places for us to play. 

 Last time we visited, we scrambled down the bank that forms the front of the reservoir to see the water pouring over the overflow, then Polar carried us further down the path to another waterfall, where the water runs out of an old mill pond.

This flows along a stream and into the Caldon Canal and some of it might end up in Westport Lake, which is Hanley Bear's favourite place for walks, as Mrs Kay's famous Oatcake Boat is often moored there.

We hope to do more exploring soon, but first I have to write about our adventures over Christmas, as we had some brilliant presents from Polar and Grizzly, and did lots of exciting things.

Small Bears in Oxford

Earlier this month, Polar went to see her Dad in Southampton, who is now ninety years old.  We like visiting him, as his wife Pat gives us lots of hugs.

Polar and Grizzly decided to have a little holiday on the way there and booked in to pub near Oxford for two nights bed and breakfast, so we could visit that city. 

We bears had not been to Oxford before.  Polar explained that it was most famous for its university, founded in the Middle Ages, which is made up of many different colleges.  Because it was a bright, sunny day, we were going to have a walk around to see some of them while the sun was out, then visit a famous museum in the afternoon.

We found there was a very good park-and-ride bus service, which dropped us right in the city centre - after Grizzly had squeezed our little red car into the last space in the far corner of the car park!

We watched from our bear bag as Polar and Grizzly walked through Christ Church Meadows to the Botanic Gardens, beside the River Cherwell.  There were lots of little boats there, called punts, which are propelled using a long pole, but there were no students trying to steer them that day, because it was cold and the current in the river was quite strong.

Not far away, we found the oldest coffee shop in the whole of England and Polar and Grizzly decided it was time for a mid-morning drink and snack.

We bears climbed out of our bag and sat on the table, hoping for treats.  We were in luck!  Although Grizzly had coffee, which we don't like, Polar ordered hot chocolate, which is one of our favourite drinks, and Grizzly ordered some carrot cake, which we love.

We sipped all the froth off the top of Polar's drink and nibbled Grizzly's cake too!

 Polar and Grizzly's walk took them past some more of the Oxford Colleges and some famous buildings, including the Bridge of Sighs and the Radcliffe Camera.

'That doesn't look anything like Polar's camera!' I said to Hanley and Endon.  'How could you carry that about to take photographs?'

We decided it must be like Dr Who's Tardis, vanishing and materialising wherever it was needed, although it would need a big field or car park to land safely.

We also saw the original Oxfam Shop, a memorial to some humans called the Oxford Martyrs and a Christmas Market, where they were selling decorations made out of dried fruit.  We tried to stretch out of our basket to nibble some, but couldn't quite reach.

Then we got to the Ashmolean Museum.  Polar told us we had to be very good bears and not touch things and definitely not climb on them, as some of the exhibits were thousands of years old and came from ancient civilisations from all over the world.

There were statues, weapons and treasures, and even a whole tomb from ancient Egypt, but what impressed Hanley Bear most of all was how much pottery there was.

'Look at all those vases!' he said.  'They look like the ones Mr Wedgwood and his workers made.'

'These are much older than Mr Wedgwood's vases,' Polar explained, showing him vases from ancient Greece and Crete.  'Just think, Hanley - there have been potters for tens of thousands of years.  We know this, because pottery preserves very well, so archaeologists almost always find some when they dig up lost towns and cities.'

'So, in thousands of years from now, pots made in Stoke-on-Trent might be dug up by archaeologists?' asked Hanley.  Polar said that was right, which made Hanley very quiet and thoughtful, for a change.  

As he was so interested, we took Hanley to see a display of hundreds of pieces of fine china from the 17th and 18th centuries, although he spent most of the time looking for Stoke-made items.  

Finally, after our human guardians had looked at some paintings, we all went for afternoon tea in the rooftop restaurant, which was our favourite part of the whole day!  

We slept soundly in our bear bag on the bus ride back to the car and all the way back to our nice pub and, once we got there, we decided it was probably time for some more sleeps.